Wine Blast with Susie and Peter
Wine Blast is a wine podcast with a difference. Susie and Peter are married Masters of Wine and experienced broadcasters who bring wine to life with a smile via interviews with amazing people, provocative chat, food, tips, your questions, gentle bickering and a certain amount of over-sharing. (And yes, they're aware they really need to get out more...) This award-winning, chart-topping pod has been widely featured in international press including The Times, Telegraph, Daily Mail, Sun, Evening Standard, Radio Times, Decanter, Wine Folly and beyond. Reviews of Wine Blast say: 'Love these guys (almost as much as wine): educational, invigorating and damn funny too' - 'Relatable, entertaining, light-hearted' (Drinks Business) - 'Best wine podcast out there' - 'A complete tonic for the heart, mind and soul' (Drinks Network). Cheers!
Episodes
How and why is the global wine scene in a bit of a state? Why is wine threatened by weight-loss drugs and smartphones? Does drinking high quality wine make you happier - and does light drinking increase longevity?
This is our periodic programme where we catch up on the more intriguing wine news, pondering everything from weighty matters (as above) but also touching on lighter-hearted fare. Such as ...
There's a new wave of English and Welsh wine producers disrupting the neat and tidy order of the classic UK wine scene. Guerrilla producers - cool kids who aren't afraid to go off-piste and craft dangerous, divisive wines packed full of quirks and kinks. Their attitude? It's better to be naughty than nice. As one winemaker says - he wants to make, 'wines with a cheeky smile.'
Not many wines ascend to the status of 'icon'. But Sassicaia is one of them.
The beauty is that it's not a flashy wine - quite the opposite ('old school' might be a more appropriate description). What's more, its ascent to the wine stratosphere is largely accidental - this scented, elegant Bordeaux blend from Bolgheri in coastal Tuscany was only ever intended as a quaff...
It's called 'The Grenaissance'.
This exhilarating revival of the grape variety known as Garnacha in Spain and Grenache in France, once the world's fourth most widely planted wine grape, which has gone from workhorse to show pony in the blink of an eye. How come? What's changed? Who's leading the charge and fuelling the new wave? And what's this we hear about inheren...
From big brand to fine wine - it's no exaggeration to say that grower champagne has changed the notion of what champagne can and should be.
Pioneers like Francis Egly of iconic grower champagne Egly-Ouriet have invested huge amounts of time and money prioritising their vineyards, relentlessly focusing on quality and terroir expression in their wines - and ultimately going up against the big Cham...
Light strike is probably the biggest wine fault you've never heard of. Bigger than cork, bigger than oxidation or anything else.
That pretty-looking bottle of rosé perched on the bright supermarket shelf in a clear glass bottle? Probably knackered. If it's been exposed to light for a while, it may end up smelling of boiled cabbage, drains, or wet dog. At the very least, its character will ...
Deep in the wilds of south-west France there's a vineyard that was planted over 200 years ago with unknown vines that may hold the secret to fighting climate change.
Join us as we head (virtually) out to Gascony to peer into the mists of wine history and see what lessons it holds for the future. Olivier Bourdet-Pees of the dynamic Plaimont cooperative is our genial, beret-wearing guide, introduc...
So - orange wine. Is it any good? What qualifies a wine to be 'orange'? Does it sell? And who's going to win our argument about one particularly divisive orange wine?!
Dive into the controversial, topical and intriguing subject of orange wine with us as we chat with Saša Radikon of iconic orange wine producer Radikon (who gives us an exclusive revelation about a new project) and nautra...
'Please can you do an episode on orange wine?' pleaded listener David.
'It's not just hipster wine! These are some of the finest wines in the world...'
How could we resist?
Orange wine is topical, misunderstood, controversial...
It's also an intriguing story featuring a wine style lost in the mists of time being painstakingly resurrected by a h...
Wine. Food. Merriment. And a touch of southern French sun.
That just about sums up this episode.
We're exploring Occitanie - the sun-kissed southern French region that stretches from the western Rhone through Languedoc and Roussillon into South West France.
Taken as a whole, it's the world's largest vineyard and makes around 5% of global wine output.
In the p...
Our Wines of the Year format has grown into this riotous, rollicking rollercoaster of a show which we humbly offer up for your amusement and delectation.
This is no shopping list.
Nor is it a chest-beating exercise in showing off how #wineblessed we are.
This episode is the story of a year in wine: a celebration of special bottles and special times, set against the backdrop of news...
Odessa Black.
It's the name of a (Ukranian) grape variety. But it could almost be code for the desperate times the people of Ukraine are living through.
In this episode, we explore the history and current context of Ukraine, hearing first-hand insights from Tania Olevska of the Ukrainian Wine Company and Svitlana Tsybak of the Beykush winery.
Despite the chaos and devastation i...
Languedoc is a wine region on the move.
Sure, it's a huge region with plenty of history, some of it troubled.
But there are things happening in Languedoc wine now that are innovative, surprising, intriguing and...well, delicious.
In short, it's well worthy of our attention.
In this episode, sponsored by AOP Languedoc, we chat to writers Rupert Millar and Rosemary...
We're going full-on Moses mode in this episode, nailing down the ten wines you should always have at home.
Of course, personal taste plays a part. You want to have wines to hand you're going to reach for - which means your favourite styles.
But beyond that, it helps to have some expert insight into the bigger picture in order to always have delicious, affordable and useful wines wh...
English sparkling wine. We all know it's good.
But how well does it age?
And could this be the secret to unlocking even greater quality from what are already exciting wines?
We do our best to answer these questions and more with the help of several large glasses of very fine mature English fizz - and top winemakers Cherie Spriggs and Brad Greatrix (Nyetimber) and Corinne Seel...
It's a wine region variously described as, 'dynamic', whose wines are undergoing a quality 'revolution', and memorably compared to South Africa's uber-cool Swartland.
It's also got a big old mountain on its picture postcard. Not to mention truffles galore.
This is Ventoux.
And we want to take you on a journey of discovery, to meet the people, expl...
What are the wine books every wine lover should own?
We thought about it. We argued. We drank some wine. Argued some more...
And then we decided: let's go for it. No messing around: choose just the six BEST books every wine lover needs, whether enthusiastic newbie or jaded expert.
It wasn't easy. But this is the DEFINITIVE listing. A lot of thought and research went into t...
This is a tale of deception, daring, disaster...and deliverance.
It also features skinny sheep and wine robots.
It's the story of Marlborough, the iconic New Zealand wine region which is celebrating its 50th wine birthday, after vines were planted by Frank Yukich in August 1973.
Yukich had risked personal financial ruin getting to this point. 'Wines from here will become w...
'My wife suggested we make wine. I think in the hope of cutting down our wine bill...'
It's classic John Malkovich. The wit as dry as his aged Provençal Pinot Noir rosé (yes, you read that right).
In this epic episode, we get to know John Malkovich the famous actor of stage and screen - but also John Malkovich the fashion designer, the theatre director, and most importantly John Malkov...
This bonus episode may be the last in the current season (4) but it's also a first - the first time we've ever recorded the pod in front of a live audience!
A lovely bunch of people came together in our home town of Winchester to drink a glass or two of fine Hampshire fizz and bombard us with searching questions, from which wines we'd recommend for a large and varied dinner party crowd...
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